Suchergebnisse

This report is an attempt to understand the relationship between media and democracy in Turkey. Towards that end, it situates the media in its political and historical context. It argues that Turkey's media structure falls under the "Mediterranean or Polarised Pluralistic Model" developed by Hallin and Mancini due to the very low level of newspaper circulation, the tradition of advocacy journalism, the structure of media ownership, the absence of an autonomous profession immune to pressure from politicians, interest groups, state institutions, the army and the judiciary and the extremely low level of unionization in the media which leads to high levels of labour exploitation. The report argues that despite relative progress achieved in the EU accession process, Turkey continues to fall far below the goal of harmonizing its legal framework with the EU's acquis communitaire, mainly due to the prevalent political culture and the historical origins of state-media relations in Turkey.

Turkey's 'minority problem,' which is contemporary with the Republic, has been among the fundamental political issues of the country since 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. Non-Muslim Turkish citizens were given minority status, and gained a series of individual and collective rights, under the Treaty of Lausanne. These rights were not implied by this minority status or based on prerogatives, but were based on the principle of equality with Muslim citizens. However, the Turkish state has systematically violated its obligations under the Treaty, negating the legal protection its non-Muslim citizens are entitled to. This report provides an historical account of the real estate ownership problem experienced by non-Muslim foundations in Turkey since the Ottoman period, and to situate the current situation in Turkey's EU accession process.

Despite Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's emphasis to the contrary, the "democratisation package" announced on September 30 was expected to be more than just another bundle of EU-induced reforms. The much-awaited package came nearly a year after the initiation of informal peace talks between the government and Abdullah Öcalan – the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organisation by the EU and the US – and six months after Öcalan made a historic call to his fighters to end the armed struggle. The package was anticipated as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government's response to Öcalan's three-stage road map for peace. Yet, rather than legislative changes for a political settlement on the Kurdish question, Erdoğan announced a generic harmonisation package, a move which has put into question his government's commitment to the peace process. The fragility of the cease fire between the PKK and the Turkish military and the urgency of radical reforms to prevent a deadlock in the peace process render the AKP's piecemeal approach to democratisation too costly at this point in time. With the EU's opening of negotiations on Chapter 22 on regional policy, which pertains to decentralisation in governance and is thus relevant for a political solution to the Kurdish question, there is a real and urgent need for European policy makers to be involved in the peace process in Turkey.

Europe has been a primary actor in Turkey's democratization process and for the Kurdish political struggle carried out simultaneously by the PKK and civilian actors since the late 1980s. The European Union and the European Court of Human Rights have had an indispensable role in raising awareness and documenting the plight of the Kurds on the one hand and inducing Turkey to embark on political reform on the other. Since the mid-2000s, however, the dynamics between Europe, the Turkish government and the Kurdish political movement have drastically changed, diminishing the role, legitimacy and significance of European institutions in Turkey and forcing the Turkish state and the Kurds to develop a "home grown" solution to the conflict. While the "peace process" launched by the government in late 2012 raises hopes for a peaceful settlement, the mismatch between the parties' expectations render it extremely fragile.

This report provides an extensive mapping of the strategic litigation of minorities in Turkey before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the substance and implementation of the EctHR's judgments in these cases and the overall impact these judgments have had on human rights protection in Turkey. While the ECtHR case law played an indispensable role in bringing to light the egregious human rights record of the Turkish Government in late 1980s and early 1990s, the report demonstrates, the relative change in government policies came with the emergence of the EU as an actor in Turkish politics. On the other hand, while forcing the government to start cooperating with the ECtHR, the EU process has not resulted in structural changes in Turkey's legal regime and politics.

At the invitation of the Turkish government, the Representative of the UN Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons Francis Deng undertook a fact finding mission to Turkey in 2002. Deng summed up his findings and recommendations in a report submitted to the UN Commission on Human Rights. This report, co-published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundations (TESEV) provides a comprehensive assessment of the Turkish government's implementation of Deng's recommendations on the basis of empirical data derived from field research conducted in provinces populated with Kurdish displaced. The report concludes that while some progress has been made in the official recognition of the problem of conflict-induced displacement, the adoption of a law to partially compensate the material losses of the displaced, there are significant outstanding issues concerning the right to return, property rights (including the right to restitution or compensation), the social and economic integration of the displaced, and finally the establishment of truth and justice concerning the gross human rights abuses committed by security forces against the Kurdish displaced in the 1990s.

During the armed conflict in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolian regions of Turkey between 1984 and 1999, a large wave of internal displacement took place. In the mid-1990s, national human rights organizations prepared reports to bring to public attention that hundreds of thousands of people had been evicted from their rural homes. However, at that time the displacement did not attract the attention that it deserved from the media and public opinion in Turkey. Most importantly, public institutions did not take any measures to address the problems of internally displaced persons ("IDPs").Based on an analysis of secondary sources and qualitative fieldwork, this book assesses this phenomenon within a conceptual framework at both national and international levels as well as within the political and socio-economic circumstances specific to Turkey.

Notwithstanding the ongoing negotiations between the PKK and the government, the crux of Turkey's Kurdish issue remains the structural inequalities against the Kurds, which are deeply rooted in an anti-democratic politico-legal regime.

Certainly, Turkey has come a long way in acknowledging the Kurdish issue and taking steps to address the Kurds' demands for equality and the rule of law. Once banned from speaking their language, Kurds can now use it to attain a university education. The Kurdish region is no longer governed by a state of emergency, nor are Kurdish civilians disappearing under detention. There is no doubt that the European Court of Human Rights and the European Union have played an indispensable role in this transition.

However, European institutions' engagement in the Kurdish issue has not always been coherent, while their impact on Turkey's policies has been limited, and at times negative, particularly in the post-9/11 context. Their uncritical oversight has facilitated Turkey's reluctance to undertake structural reforms to bring an end to the selective prosecution of Kurdish politicians, the criminalisation of non-violent advocacy of enhanced rights for the Kurds, the armament of civilians in the Kurdish region and the impunity of state officials who commit human rights violations.

Recent developments in Turkey have shown, once again, that a genuine democratic transition will only be possible with the coherent, continuous and critical engagement of European institutions in the Kurdish issue.

Viele hatten weitaus mehr von dem »Demokratiepaket« erwartet, das der türkische Premierminister Recep Tayyip Erdogan am 30. September angekündigt hatte. Schließlich wurde es fast ein Jahr nach Aufnahme der informellen Friedensgespräche beschlossen, die die Regierung mit Abdullah Öcalan führt, dem inhaftierten Führer der Arbeiterpartei Kurdistans (PKK). Doch anstelle von Reformen zur Lösung der Kurdenfrage stellte Erdogan lediglich allgemeine Maßnahmen in Aussicht, die dazu dienen sollen, türkische Gesetze mit dem Acquis der Europäischen Union (EU) zu harmonisieren. Mit der formalen Öffnung von Kapitel 22 im Rahmen der Verhandlungen über den Beitritt der Türkei zur EU ist auch die europäische Politik gefordert, Einfluss auf den Friedensprozess zu nehmen. Denn dieses Kapitel betrifft die Regionalpolitik, die eng mit der Frage der Dezentralisierung zusammenhängt. (Autorenreferat)

In Turkey, some one million men, women and children were forcibly uprooted from rural areas in the east and southeast as a result of the armed struggle from 1984 to 1999 between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish military. Large numbers fled to urban areas, where they have experienced poverty, poor housing, joblessness, loss of land and property, limited access to physical and mental health cvare services, and limited educational opportunities for their children. Those that have returned to their communities of origin also face major difficulties, including threats to their physical safety from landmines and village guards, and dire poverty due to insufficient job opportunities, public services, and compensation for lost property. This book digs deeply into the causes of conflict and displacement in Turkey, seeking to go beyond official versions and to unearth what really occurred and how best to move forward to resolve the political, economic and social divisions. the government would be well advised to study the findings and recommendations of this constructive volume. Acknowledging the plight of the displaced in both rural and urban areas and developing effective policies and programs to help them reintegrate is critical not only for the lives of the displaced but also for the coherence and stability of the country as a whole. (TESEV Publications)

Frontmatter -- Contents -- The contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Untangling the domestic implementation of the European Court of Human Rights' judgments -- Part I. Institutional Dynamics Of Domestic Implementation -- 1. The interrelationship between domestic judicial mechanisms and the Strasbourg Court rulings in Germany -- 2. Between political inertia and timid judicial activism: the attempts to overcome the Italian 'implementation failure' -- 3. The reluctant embrace: the impact of the European Court of Human Rights in post-communist Romania -- Part II. Legal Mobilisation and the Political Context of Implementation -- 4. European human rights case law and the rights of homosexuals, foreigners and immigrants in Austria -- 5. Political opposition and judicial resistance to Strasbourg case law regarding minorities in Bulgaria -- 6. Under what conditions do national authorities implement the European Court of Human Rights' rulings? Religious and ethnic minorities in Greece -- 7. A complicated affair: Turkey's Kurds and the European Court of Human Rights -- 8. The European Court of Human Rights and minorities in the United Kingdom: catalyst for change or hollow rhetoric? -- 9. Politics, courts and society in the national implementation and practice of European Court of Human Rights case law -- List of European Court of Human Rights judgments and European Commission on Human Rights cases -- Index